Police expose Derren Brown hoax

Tuesday 7 October 2003 21.17 EDT
First published on Tuesday 7 October 2003 21.17 EDT

The publicity material described him as either brave or foolhardy. But Derren Brown, the illusionist who claimed he was playing Russian roulette on television using a live bullet, was revealed yesterday to be neither.

Brown's controversial stunt backfired when police on Jersey, where it was filmed, said he had used blank ammunition.

The illusionist, dubbed Britain's answer to David Blaine, had boasted he was risking his life. In fact it was an elaborate hoax.

A spokesman for Brown last night issued a less than robust defence of the stunt, saying only that if the illusionist had used a blank bullet, as the police alleged, and if it had fired as the gun were pointed at his head, then "he would have died anyway".

Three million people watched the show on Channel 4 on Sunday, despite fierce criticism from police and anti-gun campaigners.

The idea was that a volunteer would load a bullet into one of a gun's six chambers. Channel 4's publicity material clearly stated it would be a "live bullet". Brown would then use his powers to divine which chamber the bullet was in.

Viewers duly saw him fire empty chambers at his head and appear to fire a live bullet at a sandbag, which seemed to have been punctured.

When it emerged that the stunt had taken place on Jersey the police switchboard was bombarded by complaints and the matter was raised in the island's parliament yesterday.

The police say they felt they had to put the record straight. Lenny Harper, deputy chief officer for the States of Jersey police, said the force had given permission for a production and props company to bring 50 rounds of blank ammunition and equipment used to replicate the impact of a bullet on to the island. The programme makers told the police they would be filming at a farmhouse at Grouville on the south-east tip of the island.

Mr Harper said: "There was no live ammunition involved and at no time was anyone at risk."

The programme makers had made much of the fact that they were having to film overseas because of the UK's strict gun laws. But Jersey's laws are just as strict. Mr Harper said: "There is absolutely no way the States of Jersey police would allow anybody to put themselves at risk and shoot themselves dead. This was just an illusion - the question of whether it was in dubious taste is another matter."